Exhibition by Dhali Al Mamoon begins tomorrow

An exhibition of works titled ‘Atlas of Dissent’ by artist Dhali Al Mamoon will begin tomorrow at Bengal Shilpalay, Dhanmondi in the capital.

Political scientist and author Professor Rounaq Jahan will inaugurate the exhibition tomorrow at 5pm on the gallery premises. Sajjad Sharif, Managing Editor of the Prothom Alo, and poet, will speak on the occasion.

Rereading re-constructing the past, Dhali Al Mamoon said, “Elements of the colonial past continues to pervasively dominate our ways of living, learning and daily practices. The burden of this inheritance controls our mind, thought patterns and dissociates us from the history of our being and our distinct ecology; which at the same time governs our creative process, art-diction and subject these to extraneous standards. Realisation of this absurdity inspired me to choose the colonial condition as my locus of enquiry. In effect, this is but a way to explore my own situatedness. While following a trajectory of thought, constituent properties-process become a pivotal part of structuring a language—the ongoing effort to understand all these vectors resulted not only in the artworks but also the process leading to them.”

Artist and educator Dhali Al Mamoon was born in Chandpur, Bangladesh, in 1958. His deeply thoughtful drawings, paintings, kinetic sculptures and installations explore issues of knowledge, history and identity. For him, drawing is not just a practising tool or an aid to visual expression but a complete medium of artistry. He believes drawing can express the geometry of thoughts, realisations and human experience. Materials for his projects are diverse and chosen for their relevance to the subject matter of the artwoks, its geneology, history and its representation.

A professor in the Department of Fine Arts, University of Chittagong, Mamoon received his master’s degree in from the same university in 1984. He was a DAAD Fellow at Hocchule der Kunste in Berlin, from 1993-94.

Exhibition is on view at Quamrul Hassan Exhibition Hall, Level 1, Bengal Shilpalay, until March 26, every day from 4pm to 8pm except on Tuesdays.